Sargent: Check out Port Canaveral for Northern weakfish

This angler shows a good-sized Northern weakfish, which is closely related to our spotted seatrout, also a weakfish. The Northern variety features hundreds of small spots on its entire body. It migrates into southern waters during the winter months including the middle turning basin at Port Canaveral.(Photo: PROVIDED PHOTO)

Anyone who fished at Port Canaveral in the 1970s and ‘80s can tell you stories about the hordes of Northern weakfish that were caught.

January and February were the peak months for the seasonal migrants that moved down the Eastern Seaboard and would make a hard right turn into the port where they’d group into tight schools near the 40-foot bottoms in the middle and west turning basins. On most days 30 or 40 boats would be anchored in the basins with the fishing parties catching dozens.

I recall a particularly cold winter day in the mid ‘70s while fishing with Mike Ramsey and the late Whitey Holzlohner for a fish fry at Dave Tingley’s Barge Canal Fishing Camp on Merritt Island.

For years Ramsey was an officer with the Florida Marine Patrol in Brevard County and Holzlohner was a retired contractor who seldom missed a day of fishing out of Tingley’s. They knew exactly where a big school of weakfish was holding in the west basin and we caught over 60 fish that day.

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Bill Sargent(Photo: FLORIDA TODAY FILE)

That was long before cruise ships at Canaveral. Today, during times when cruise ships are docked in the west basin, the boating public is not allowed to enter the area. But the middle turning basin remains open.

The Northern weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) is akin to the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), another weakfish sometimes called speckled trout that is prevalent along the Space Coast and throughout Florida.

While nearly identical in body shape and features, the Northern weakfish has smaller and more numerous spots and it grows larger, with the all-tackle world record being 19 pounds, 2 ounces. The all-tackle record the spotted seatrout is 17 pounds, 7 ounces. Also the Northern weakfish should not be mistaken for the smaller silver trout and sand trout.

There’s no question that the high numbers at Canaveral no longer exist. Why? No one really seems to know. Weakfish have supported commercial fisheries along the Atlantic coast since the 1800s, and according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission there was a peak in 1980 when commercial landings stood at 36 million pounds.

Since then commercial landings have dropped dramatically, falling from over 19 million pounds landed in 1982 to 141,433 pounds in 2015.

There have been winters when fair numbers have been taken inside Port Canaveral, while other anglers have found concentrations around the tip of Cape Canaveral and in the Canaveral Bight. Because many fishermen don’t realize the weakfish may be there, they don’t target them.

The Florida bag limit is all but unlimited – 100 pounds per harvester and no minimum size limit. One exception is at the Weakfish Management Area in northeast Florida’s Nassau County where the limit is one fish per harvester, and a 12-inch minimum size limit.

Weakfish school close to the bottom and they seek out deep water like that at Canaveral, therefore a depth recorder is all but required to find a school. Or else you spend a lot of time jigging blindly along the bottom.

Several years ago Tom Ference of Merritt Island, who has been fishing along the Space Coast going on 50 years, called to say the weakfish were stacked inside the port “as good as the old days.” It was a welcomed surprise.

The following morning Ference and I were joined by Phil Woodham of Titusville and we were on the water in the middle turning basin by 6:30 a.m.

Ference had motored his skiff to a spot where he had caught dozens two days before and within minutes he had pinpointed a school with a depth recorder that showed a mass of fish about 3 feet off the bottom.

Like Ference had promised, we had a fish on nearly every drop. Sometimes they’d strike our small yellow jigs before they hit bottom or otherwise a jigging action would get their attention. All the “weaks” were 2 pounds or larger. Some smaller silver trout were mixed with them.

We didn’t keep a count of our releases but in a couple hours we accumulated 12 of the larger ones in a cooler and added a half dozen of the silvers. Weakfish are good eating when they’re fresh because their meat is moist and soft.

Using 1/4th-ounce jigs on ultralight spinning tackle with light fluorocarbon leader, we dropped the jigs directly under the boat. As a means of boosting our hookups we clipped the nylon tails on the jigs close to the hook thereby eliminating short strikes.

On several occasions the fish moved away from our anchored positions but usually not far and we’d find them again either with the recorder or by casting in varying directions and twitching the jigs along the bottom.

Northern weakfish are perfect for light tackle. The term “weakfish” refers to the easily torn membrane around the fish’s mouth, not its fighting ability.

Besides the weakfish and silver trout, we also caught Spanish mackerel, bluefish, lane and mutton snapper, a 3-pound black grouper, a couple pompano, sheepshead, jack crevalle and puffers, all on the small yellow jigs. We kept an accounting and scored a dozen different species, not including flounder, whiting, mangrove snapper and other snappers that hang near the bottom in Canaveral.

None of the weakfish that day approached 4 or 5 pounds, which usually was part of a day’s catch during the heydays.

Occasionally in those early years we’d hear of fish to 8 or 9 pounds. Catch records I’ve compiled over the years show a 9-pound, 5-ounce weakfish in 1973 by Charlie Ernst of Merritt Island. In December 1987 George Mizell of North Charleston, South Carolina, was inside Port Canaveral when he landed a 10-pounder that still stands as the Florida record.

In all cases security restrictions for boaters inside Port Canaveral require the public to remain 25 feet from all Canaveral Port Authority (CPA) piers, wharfs and docks, 100 feet from moored vessels and 200 feet from the Navy Pier. All restrictions are posted at the launch ramps.

Two major launch sites serve boaters at Canaveral, both on the south side of the port, at the Freddie Patrick Park immediately west of Jetty Park, and at the Rodney Ketcham Boat Ramp at Port’s End Park.

Bill Sargent of Melbourne has been writing about sports and outdoor subjects for FLORIDA TODAY for 49 years. Contact Sargent at sargentwb@gmail.com.